Mission Voices Summer (MVS) is a summer arts program that gives youth in the Mission District the opportunity to exercise leadership skills and participate in their community by exploring relevant social and personal issues through visual arts workshops. The program focuses on arts-based community development by pairing local artists with teens through an intensive summer program. MVS teaches youth to use the visual arts as a tool to express their creative voices and to make a visual statement about their ideas, interests, and ambitions through a series of workshops that result in an exhibition presented to the community.